...So many inventions have been added that life seems almost made overnew... - Ralph Waldo Emerson

In his 1964 text *The Machine in the Garden,* Leo Marx investigates thejuxtaposition of the pastoral and the industrial in culture andliterature. He ultimately asserts the presence of the machine within thegarden â€" or rather, a machine that transcends the bounds of urbanindustry. Thus, according to Marxâ€™s text, life â€œseems almost made overnewâ€ as the previously solid demarcation between the rural and urbansectors of life disappears. Marxâ€™s mid-twentieth century theory directlyapplies to the current twenty-first centuryâ€™s experience with rapidlyexpanding technology and the conceptualization of a new digital worldwithout bounds.

The 9th Annual EGSA Conference aims to investigate societyâ€™s new digitalface and its ever-expanding presence within the field of English. Theconferenceâ€™s plenary speaker will be Dr. N. Katherine Hayles, a professorof literature at Duke University and noted scholar in the postmodernfield, whose work concerns the relationship between science, literature,and technology.

This conference welcomes submissions from all areas of English studies,including literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, technicalwriting, and creative writing. Though we encourage a broad interpretationof our chosen theme, we ask the following questions to begin â€" but not toexhaust â€" the investigation of the machine in the garden, version 2.0:

Literature:â€¢ How is literary criticism changing as a result of our societyâ€™sdependence upon technology?â€¢ Has the â€œDystopiaâ€ foreshadowed in some literary texts arrived today asa result of the technology age?â€¢ How has critical analysis investigated these shifts in society acrossany historical period?

Linguistics:â€¢ What sort of linguistic shifts are expected as we move toward a moretechnologically driven society?â€¢ How does the advent of new jargons affect social interaction?â€¢ How has technology opened new avenues for language studies?

Rhetoric and Composition:â€¢ What implications will the digital shift in our society have on todayâ€™swriting classroom?â€¢ How might teachers need to adapt their focus in their classrooms tomeet the needs of students?â€¢ How has technology impacted traditional rhetorical devices?

Technical Writing:â€¢ How might the field of technical writing develop as a result of needingmore technologically savvy workers?â€¢ How has the field of technical writing developed as a result of thisnew shift in the society?â€¢ How have these changes in society affected the writing of thediscipline?

We also welcome any creative or technical writing pieces that investigateour theme. We will have a reading of creative pieces, including but notlimited to: narratives of experiences with shifts in culture, shortstories depicting the shift in the digital world, or any genre ofcreative writing that reflects the conference theme. We will also providea gallery to display submissions of technical writing.

Please submit an abstract or synopsis of approximately 300 words toegsa_at_uncc.edu in the body of the e-mail or as a Microsoft Word attachmentby December 15, 2008, with â€œEGSA Conferenceâ€ as the subject line of theemail.